Sea Otter Classic

The Sea Otter Classic was my last race weekend of my three week block of racing. Just like the other weekends of this block I raced on Saturday and Sunday, but instead of short track I raced downhill. This is the only downhill race I do all year and one of the few races where my result doesn’t matter.

The downhill race was on Saturday morning at 10:00am. I was only able to get one lap in before my start but was stoked to race. When I got into the start gate I was a bit nervous but mostly just excited to put down a solid run. I started out really well and was feeling fast but caught the rider in front of me and wasn’t able to get around him. Even with this I was able to put down a solid run. This race was a ton of fun and a good stress reliever for my main event the next day.

Due to the fact that my race started at 7:32am I got the pleasure of waking up at 4:15am. Because of this early wake up and noisy hotel roommates I got about four hours of sleep. Once I dragged myself out of bed I packed up all of my stuff into my car and drove to the team house for breakfast. I ate some scrambled eggs that and a toasted bagel with almond butter(there are people on the team allergic to peanuts). I then took a very short nap and drove to the course.

Once I arrived at the pit it was immediately time to get warmed up. I put my bike on the trainer and started to spin and warm up with a few efforts. After about 35 minutes of this it was time to hop off of the trainer and ride to the start. As I was riding to the start I realized I didn’t know how to get onto the race track. Luckily I saw someone with a number plate and followed him. Unfortunately I followed him to the wrong side of the track where there were no entrances. I saw everyone lining up and got a bit nervous so I decided to hop the fence to get to the start on time.

They called the 15-16 racers up with the 17-18 racers which seemed a bit odd but I guess it is Sea Otter so maximum chaos is the organizers goal. This is also shown by the single speed men starting a two minutes before us. We all sat on the line for a while until they gave us a one minute warning.

“FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! GO!” And we were out for our 29 mile race. It started off with a very tactical section on the Laguna Seca race track where people were shifting around a lot and being pretty sketchy. Luckily everyone stayed upright and made it onto the trail safely. I was staying in around the top fifteen or twenty as we flew down fire roads at 40mph, hoping not to crash on the gravel.

After a few miles of this we popped onto a long downhill fire road with cones in the middle. We quickly picked up speed and were going about 30mph in a pack. The person leading the group was going towards the cones and then swerving away at the last second causing big ripples in the field. I knew that this could cause a crash so I stayed as far away from him and the cones as possible. Unfortunately my fear came true as one of my NorCal competitors Nathan Davis hit a cone due to the sketchy riding at the front of the pack and came crashing to the ground along with my Bear Development teammate Nick Tabares - feel better guys!

When getting off of the road onto the single track Nye Yackle got to the front of the group and set a quite relaxed pace which was a good thing for me and the other people who got stuck towards the back of the pack. The group stayed together up the single track and let out onto another fire road where I was able to make more passes to get into the next section of single track in a good position.

Unfortunately another rider cut me off going into it and immediately started to lose the wheel in front of him. By the time we were spit out onto the fire road there was a solid gap between me and the leaders. I sprinted as hard as I could to get up to them as I knew that we were about to turn onto the sandy run up where a split would almost certainly be made. I was able to get around some people but there was just too much congestion to get up to the leaders as the were escaping.

I passed as many people as I could and eventually caught up to my teammate Ryder Uetrecht and immediately passed him. He got on my wheel and I kept powering up towards the riders ahead. Matthew Saldana also caught onto my group along with another teammate Ethan Moyer. We kept chasing towards the lead group. I let Matthew lead on the twisty single track descents because he knows the area like the back of his hand. We continued to catch people who had been popped off of the lead group and knew we were getting close. Matthew and I dropped the other people in the group during this and he was nice enough to take a strong pull on the fire road leading to the feed zone where we caught up to Devin Debruhl, another Bear Development rider. He set a fast pace up the climb and we finally had the lead group in our sights. We latched on to the back of it after almost ten miles of chasing.

I was happy to see that Max McFadden was in the group along with my teammate Dylan Fryer who was sitting on the front. We cruised along the single track and fire roads, knowing that the pace would explode on the long fire road grind with about six miles to go. We kept a moderate pace going up this climb and we were all taking in fluids and gels until Dylan upped the pace. We powered up the climb but the group still stayed together. It was a mad sprint up the next short fire road climb but, yet again, the group still stayed together. We then flowed into some downhill single track towards the final climb.

Once we arrived at the last climb Dylan put in another attack and the group split, and unfortunately I was not close enough at the front to make it. However my positioning didn’t matter because I was starting to feel the long chase in my legs. After this attack a small group of Max, Jake Yakle, another rider, and me was established. I accelerated around them and attacked. I got nearly to the top of the steep section and my legs started to cramp a bit. I couldn’t hold the pace and let the three riders pass me. I tried to hold onto their wheels up the last section but I had already mentally accepted dropping off of them. They got a gap on me and I looked back to make sure nobody was close to catching me, luckily there wasn’t. I crested the top of the climb and entered the race track for the final sprint. I saw them about 100 meters ahead of me and I started to sprint. I got closer to them but it was too little too late and ended up in 6th place.

I am definitely disappointed in myself for how I played the last climb and the fact that I gave up. I know that, physically, I could have held on to the group and contested the sprint but my mental game just wasn't there. Now that I have this experience under my belt I can use it to fuel me in future races. The disappointment that I feel now is just going to drive me to train harder, both mentally and physically, because I now know what its like to let myself down at a big event where the stakes were high. This was not how I wanted to finish off this block of racing but its time to move on to what is coming next.